719: A Conversation about Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce (1985) with Shawn McKee!

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The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life 57 min 4 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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What is the premise of Tobe Hooper's Life Force and why does it intrigue the hosts?

Unknown 0:02

They watched. They waited. Now their time has come. Out of the depths of space, the ultimate terror. Moving, searching, destroying. From body to body, from life to life, from man to woman, changing, growing, burning for our life force.

Lauren Butler 0:57

Welcome to The Drunken Odyssey with John King, a podcast about the writing life.

Unknown 1:05

Help us. Oh you About a man whose mind and career has careened far and wide and upside down, whose computers are seared with crimes against grammar. Whose typographical aggressions are legion, whose words flow into the very mouth of time, and more than a few bottles. A man. owns a typewriter. And perhaps even a soul.

Lauren Butler 1:46

And now your host, John King.

John King 1:57

Welcome to episode seven hundred and nineteen of the world's greatest creative writing podcast. I think that's what we're doing here. I still am John King. On today's show, at long last, Sean McKee and I will discuss the film Life Force, the 1985 Canon film, directed by Tobey Hooper, written by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jacoby. Adapted from the Colin Wilson novel The Space Vampires. Ideally on this show, one episode a month would be devoted to poetry, one would be devoted to prose. One would be devoted to Memoir. With one miscellaneous episode. I guess this is the miscellaneous episode. If you're wondering why I didn't save this for October, well of course we can't. Can't have this episode come out in October.

John King 2:55

Because October is devoted to Schlachttoberfest. All right, let's get to the interview. Welcome back to the Drunken Odyssey. I am John King and I'm joined by my dear friend Sean McKee. Hello, John. And today we're going to talk about. One of your favorite movies, Life Force. Sure. Uh directed by Toby Hooper, and this was nineteen eighty six.

Shawn McKee 3:21

Eighty five.

John King 3:22

Eighty five. Okay. This is kind of a legendary movie among people who love unusual movies.

Shawn McKee 3:30

Sure.

John King 3:30

So let me begin with a question. How the fuck do you love this movie?

Shawn McKee 3:35

Well, I think with a lot of especially eighties films, it comes back to this kind of images I saw of it as a kid on television. Of course, heavily edited because what's in the movie half of it probably never made it on television. But it was a mainstay. As a kid I saw I always saw the the sort of the more apocalyptic scenes toward the end where the whole London has turned into zombies and and I would so as a kid I was like, what the hell is this? And those images just last lasted in my head. And I was also a big fan of Invaders from Mars, another Toby Hooper directed remake. So I already knew who he was because I liked that movie as a kid and seeing it as an adult, I can see see why it's it's definitely more enjoyable as a kid.

Shawn McKee 4:19

But that just sort of stayed with me, right? Those images. And then as I got older of course and and I'm a big movie buff film lover. So and a big fan of Toby Hooper. So this always kind of stayed as I think one of his more interesting films. Um despite many flaws. Um it just so it goes back to those those nostalgic images. That always stayed with me.

John King 4:42

But for it to actually work as nostalgia, there has to be something pretty powerful about it, even if we can point out some pretty big flaws. So for you, what is it that makes it so nostalgic other than you were a kid and you saw it for the first time?

Shawn McKee 5:00

Well, I think time and place, right? There's a lot going on here, especially with Canon films and what they their output at the time. So it's kind of this weird moment in cinema history where you had someone like Toby Hooper straight off the success of Poltergeist being given this three picture deal, just carte LaBlanche of just here make three movies, here's your deal for Canon Films, but one of them had to be Check the Chancel Massacre too. So So I I thought it was interesting finding out, of course, years later that this was the first of those three movies, which is I mean it's just a batshit crazy movie. It is bonkers. Um and this was his first endeavor, right, uh as part of that three picture deal.

Shawn McKee 5:39

So I think if you look at his career, the largest impact were those three films with Canon, outside of course, Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the seventies.